Wednesday, April 14, 2010

If you'll remember back with me a few years, Del and I traveled with a team over to the Western Part of China to a town Called Yushu. Well, as most of you have probably heard, a 6.9 earthquake struck Yushu county in the Qinghai province yesterday....and our hearts are broken along with all of our friends who have spent so much time there, they call the people 'their own'.

The crazy part is that we were IN Yushu in 2008 when the massive earthquake hit Sichuan, that killed nearly 87,000 people. I can distinctly remember sitting in a restaurant eating lunch and watching the relief efforts on television that day....and never even having the THOUGHT that something like that could happen where we were sitting. Now, it's real. Knowing that the streets we walked on and the buildings we stayed in are most likely destroyed...and racking my brain with all the faces we saw and hands we touched, just wondering who made it and who didn't.

The ONE thing that I learned from that trip, was that there are still people in this world who have never EVEN HEARD the name of Jesus. Because I live in a place where there in a church in every neighborhood and where people have the amazing opportunity to hear about Him wherever they go....I never THOUGHT there would be a place where we said "Jesus" and someone would respond with a blank stare and say "Whose that?". But that is Yushu.

So, where is our hope and what is our prayer in hard times like these? Our hope is in Jesus, and His PERFECT will. It brings comfort, not bitterness, knowing that He, in His sovereign mercy, allowed this to happen....and our prayer is, that this is the event that will open the doors and allow the name of Jesus to flood into those nomadic mountains and change the hearts of the people forever. And that the robes the monks wear will truly be changed to robes of righteousness for all eternity.

Please pray along with us and let me know if you would like information on how to help.